Mexico City taxi drivers file Uber Cabify complaint

More than 10,000 Mexico City taxi representatives have filed an illegal transportation complaint against app-dependent car services Uber and Cabify. The group, Organized Taxi Drivers of Mexico City, brought the complaint against the two parent companies and Mexico’s Mobility Secretary, Rufino Leon Tovar, as well as the companies using the smartphone apps.

Organized Taxi Drivers of Mexico City representative, Daniel Medina, said, “Not only is there omission in not enforcing the law, but there also appears to be collusion on the part of the mobility secretary because now they’re looking for ways to bring them in, contrary to the ban imposed in other countries.”

In other countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Colombia and the US, numerous Uber app-using companies have been slapped with fines and have their vehicles confiscated for using the rideshare service. Uber services have recently been suspended in Madrid for not complying with public transport licensing and fare requirements.

The official complaint accuses Mexico’s mobility secretary of turning a blind eye and not taking action against these app-dependent taxi services; taxi services that are free to impose their own fares and ignore the government’s role in mandating taxi prices.

Mexico City taxi drivers say that local authorities have failed to enforce existing laws – laws they are forced to abide by – and continue to allow Uber to violate current mobility laws, specifically Article 258 of the mobility law that states: that companies commit the crime of “illegal passenger or cargo transport” when they use vehicles lacking “a concession or permit issued by the (mobility) secretariat for those purposes.”

Medina noted that on October 30, Leon Tovar told the media that companies involved in using the Uber and Cabify services were breaking the law and that vehicles providing taxi services “without (designated taxi) license plates and meters are pirates and these vehicles don’t have them.”